My Journey to a Plastic Free Life

The beginning of the story:

This is the beginning of My Journey to a Plastic Free Life. At times I hade made excuses for convenience or felt that there was no other option. Grabbing a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, getting food to go or not wanting to spend extra money on things you are given for free at the local grocery or retail shops (ie plastic bags, cutlery, straws). Plastic has worked its way into every moment of our lives. Being born in the 80’s, plastic was the go-to material for most things in my development to adulthood.

plastic free life legos plastic games childhood 80's

Picture of me and my older brother excited about opening our new plastic toys.

My observation:

Only in the last 5 years have I become aware of the amount I use. It started with walks in the neighborhood to merely pick up trash, paper, metal, plastic… it was all the same. Then we started working on landscape projects at beach and river sites where plastic naturally washes up on the shore as if it were just part of the rise and fall of the sea.  I noticed that you do not see as much metal or paper.  It’s basically all plastic.

beach cleanup in Celestun, Yucatan, Mexico

Trying to find a solution:

Then I started doing research. Reading articles online and popular plastic-free living books. The more I researched, the more desperate and helpless I felt. One dump truck of plastic dumping into the ocean every minute.  How could I possibly compete with that?
plastic free life plastic in dumpster environmental cleanup

The experiment begins:

So I started to focus in. If I could change the way I live, promote plastic-free living and live conscious of how much I was consuming – and if we could all influence each other to help clean and heal the world – I anticipated that might be the path to a happier existence.

GO PLASTIC FREE

Looking for high quality, sustainable products that will make living plastic-free easy and convenient to implement in your day to day like I was?  Check out the link to our latest Project “Go Plastic Free” below!  The store is set up to provide lots of plastic-free options for living, travel and pets with profits going to non-profits who help clean and promote environmental health. It’s something that I had been looking for for a long time.  Once I found and cherry picked these items, I wanted to create one place that would house something useful for everyone with any need.

My plastic consumption:

I have made a goal of publicly outing myself every week with my plastic consumption. This is an ongoing experiment to see if it changes the way I live and I hope you will take something from this. Some of this I can live without, some there is no alternative at this point and some I need but could have found an alternative.  See photos of my latest plastic consumption below.

Your feedback:

I would love to hear from you in the comments below!  Please feel free to share your thoughts, concerns, questions, struggles or triumphs in living plastic-free!
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